Site navigation

Browse Entries

Use Trove to find more resources by/about this Biographical entry

Biographical entry Clubbe, Charles Percy Barlee (1854 - 1932)

KBE

Born

2 February 1854Buckinghamshire, England

Died

20 November 1932Rose Bay, New South Wales, Australia

Occupation

Paediatrician

Summary

Sir Charles Clubbe was a pioneer of paediatric orthopaedic surgery and specialised in the treatment of club-feet and bow-legs. He was a founding fellow of the College of Surgeons of Australasia (later Royal Australasian College of Surgeons) and consulting surgeon at many hospitals including the Coast Hospital and Sanatorium (later the Prince Henry Hospital), the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind, and the Greycliffe (Lady Edeline) Hospital for Babies. Clubbe appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in 1927 for his contribution to medicine in Australia and the world.

Skip to

Details

After completing medical studies at St Bartholomew's Hospital (England), Charles Percy B. Clubbe was admitted as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons (1876) and as a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, London in 1877. One of his first appointments was as a house surgeon to the Kidderminster hospital. He left this post in 1879 to work as a civil surgeon with the Army Medical Department of Natal during the Zulu War. Upon his return to England, Clubbe was appointed chief resident medical officer to the (Royal) Manchester Children's Hospital. This was the start of his lifelong interest in paediatric medicine.

For health reasons Charles Clubbe decided to migrate to Australia in 1883. He immediately set up a private practice in Randwick, New South Wales and within a year was working as an honorary surgeon to the Hospital for Sick Children, Glebe Point. By 1889 Clubbe was appointed an honorary assistant surgeon to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and had developed a reputation as an expert in the surgical treatment of children. His text book The diagnosis & treatment of intussusception (1907) gained world-wide praise and went into its second edition in 1921. He also wrote a series of papers for the Australasian Medical Gazette (1889-1891) on the surgical treatment of club-feet and of bow-legs which lead to the development of orthopaedic surgery in Australia.

Advanced surgical techniques were not the only contributions Charles Clubbe made to paediatric medicine. He also established a diptheria treatment centre at the Glebe hospital where he treated patients with a new diptheria antitoxin and carried out emergency traceotomies. When not dealing with patients, Clubbe gave lectures in clinical surgery at the University of Sydney (1895-1907); managed the board of the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children; served on the Medical Board of New South Wales; was president of the New South Wales Bush Nursing Association, the District Nursing Association, the Infantile Paralysis Committee of New South Wales, and the Royal Society for the Welfare of Mothers and Babies; and was chairman of the Baby Clinics, Pre-maternity and Home Nursing Board.

Events

1876 -

Career position - Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, London

1877 -

Career position - Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, London

1879

Career position - Civil Surgeon with the Army Medical Department of Natal